Category 4 Hurricane Strikes Central Florida

GPS-logged
routes in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda along which VIEWS was deployed,
recording geo-referenced digital video and digital photographs.

VIEWS
field reconnaissance system in operation

MCEER researchers had a unique opportunity to collect perishable damage survey
data using satellite imagery following Hurricane Charley. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation,
the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center (NHRAIC) and MCEER, the data gathered will support subsequent
research aimed at improving the effectiveness of disaster response.

Hurricane Charley was the most severe wind storm to strike the US since 1992.
Making landfall on August 13, 2004 at 4 p.m. ET, 145 mph winds devastated
the Florida coastal cities of Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda, and 10 ft. high
waves wreaked havoc on nearby barrier islands. In the hours following, a Presidential
disaster declaration was issued for twenty-five counties in the impacted region.
The event resulted in the loss of at least 27 lives, and caused more than
$15.4 billion of damage.

This event is the first Category 4 hurricane for which ‘before’ and ‘after’
satellite imagery is available from very high-resolution systems, such as
Quickbird and IKONOS. From a scientific perspective, it therefore offers a
unique opportunity to investigate the use of remote sensing for post-disaster
urban damage assessment, technology which has the potential for improving
the effectiveness of disaster response activities.

In order to validate building damage characteristics identified on the satellite
imagery, corresponding ground-based observations are required. There is a
narrow time window for documenting the building and infrastructure damage
from extreme windstorm events, as clean-up operations are typically initiated
as soon as possible. Through funding from the National Science Foundation
Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program and the Natural Hazards
Research and Applications Information Center Quick Response program, two field
reconnaissance trips have been conducted by ImageCat in conjunction with the
Wind Science Research and Engineering (WISE) Research Center at Texas Tech,
to collect perishable damage data using the VIEWS (Visualizing Impacts of
Earthquakes With satellites) system, which was developed by ImageCat through
funding from MCEER (Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research).
It is envisioned that the data collected will ultimately form the basis of
research activities extending the application of post-disaster damage assessment
methodologies and algorithms developed for earthquakes to multiple hazards.
This research will result in significant advances for windstorm engineering.

These three images compare the same location:
satellite image before the hurricane (left) satellite image after the
hurricane (middle), and a digital photo of the circled area in the satellite
images taken during the reconnaissance trip (right).